Both Doshi and Copus explore the relationship between a mother and child in relation to parental love and protection, or the absence of such. While both poets place a direct focus on the child’s emotions, the tone of the poems, a parallelism to the context of the mother-child relationship, creates a disparity between the brutal narrative of The Deliverer and the melancholy reflection of Raymond, at 60. The poets also explore the nature of the mother-child relationship through the idea of death, although Doshi and Copus present varying perspectives on this idea .
In The Deliverer, the speaker examines the process of female infanticide in the Indian state of Kerala, and the rescuing of one baby by her mother. The tone of the poem lacks emotion, with the use of statements of fact, using ‘is’ and ‘was’ to create a relatively formal tone, almost as if it were a report; this elucidates both the impression of the poem being judgement-less, so as to ensure that a reader can make their own moral judgement of the situation, but also to mimic the uncaring behaviour of the parents in the village towards their parental duties and relationship with their children . The seemingly insignificant babies are tossed into ‘the heap’ by their mothers, highlighting the jarring normalcy of this misogynistic process, mimicked by the simple and formal tone. Similarly, the lack of figurative language also helps to ensure that the imagery remains simple and realistic; these vivid images, evoked through the regular descriptions and factual imagery, would reduce figurative language to redundancy – metaphorical language, for example, could take away from the raw emotion that Doshi generates, creating yet another barrier, not just distance, between the reader and the brutal reality of the children’s deaths at the direct hands of their mothers, but also by the indirect hands of the sexist regime and ideology. The final line ‘Trudge home to lie down for their men again’ emphasises the brutal existence of Indian women in Kerala; its separation from the previous tercets demonstrates its significance, drawing additional attention to Doshi’s terrifying narrative images. The plural of ‘men’ emphasises that this scenario applies to an innumerable number of women around the globe, not just in Kerala, who are subservient to the desires of their husbands, which precedes over their own children. Thus disregarding the relationship between mother and child as insignificant in comparison to the parents want for children that are not ‘crippled or dark or girls’, suggesting that the relationship between mother and child crumbles in poor societies when faced with the traditional role of women as ‘birth givers’ for the husbands, whose desire for healthy, male babies is therefore mirrored in his wife. In contrast, Copus presents a son’s mourning to the recent passing of his mother in a hospital ward, which transports him back to the age of ‘Eleven? Twelve?’ with his mother, in Raymond, at 60. The tone, while melancholic from mourning, seems to have hopeful undertones, reflected in the specular form of the poem, where the third-person narrative documents his last interaction with his mother in the first stanza, and then uses the same information to detail a happier occurrence from his childhood. The palindromic form is also symbolic of the relationship itself, where Raymond had cared for his mother in old age, just as she had cared for him in his youth. The caring nature of a mother-child relationship is emphasised in the similarity of ‘he put his dry lips to her cheek and kissed her’ / ‘crushed to her breast’, and the continuous nature of watching the rain. Just as Raymond ‘kept his eyes fixed on the rain’ both in youth and adulthood, his love for his mother is presented as simultaneously continuous, and never-ending, even after her passing. The hopeful undertones of Raymond, at 60 presents a typical, romanticised, Western viewpoint of the nature of familial relationships as an unwavering force – this viewpoint stands as a direct juxtaposition to the brutal narrative and tone of The Deliverer, demonstrating that the glorified mother-child relationship that the reader is used to is not always the normality, especially not in places like ‘Kerala’.
One particularly noticeable contrast between the two poems is the extent to which the idea of death and lasting memory affects the relationship between mother and child, and the consequent elevation of maternal figures. Copus uses the specular form for its circularity and its sense of inevitability – similar to the inevitability of death itself. In Raymond, at 60, Raymond’s memory of the night his mother died blurs into a boyhood memory when he had felt smothered by her care, two events that ‘stay with him now’; the death of his mother does not diminish the significance of their relationship, evidenced by the specificity of ‘the 185 from Catford Bridge, the 68 from Euston’, mirrored both in the original form of the poem, but also in Raymond’s memory, highlighting the idea of significant consistency in his life, where he elevates both childhood and adulthood memories of his mother. The evoking of ‘God’ in this poem also aims to elevate his mother, almost like a saint after death. The poem moves from his adulthood understanding in the first stanza, ‘as if he had found God / the very moment she had left him’ to his childhood understanding in the second stanza, ‘as if he would found God / out there in the O of the buses’ steel-rimmed headlamps’. The change in where Raymond ‘found God’ suggests that death itself has increased the significance of the mother-child relationship, as he now sees his mother as a divine figure and an inherent, almost holy part of him, through ‘Now I am I’. In contrast to Copus’ idea of an elevated biological mother, Doshi presents both an ironic elevation of the seemingly-ignorant adoptive parents, and a genuine elevation of her own mother. The brutal death of the babies is also not romanticised and does not make them saint-like, demonstrating the harsh reality of their loss of life; the idea of death and consequent lasting memories is less evident in The Deliverer, with death not being a foundation for elevation, but instead good deeds and a caring disposition. The lines ‘They are American, so they know about ceremony / And tradition, about doing things right.’ could be interpreted as mocking, where the ‘ceremony’ could be interpreted as just a mere show of ‘doing the right thing’ and adopting the child, not because of any genuine empathy. The idea of ‘doing things right’ also seems ironic in context; however, it appears that possibly anything could be more morally ‘right’ than the previously expected fate of the baby. The satirical elevation of an abandoned baby’s adoptive parents suggests that the anti-female bias in places such as Kerala do not allow for any genuine elevation of the biological mother-child relationship, but instead of maternal-figures – the ironic tone of the statement suggests that it is not yet a genuine elevation because of the parents’ ignorance to the child’s background. The only genuine elevated figure is the speaker’s mother herself, simultaneously elevated like a saint. The title of ‘The Deliverer’ seems to both represent the mother’s physical delivering of the baby to the adoptive parents, but also carries with it the religious motif of deliverance, such as that by Moses. The elevation of the mothers, who both are ‘crying’ which demonstrates the draining emotions of such a deep relationship, stands as a direct contrast to the perceived emotionless nature of the Indian mothers, who are unable to be elevated due to the inherent female bias in impoverished areas. Both poets elevate the speakers’ mothers; however, the most considerable difference between the two poems is underpinned by their perception of the reality of death.
Overall, both Copus and Doshi present contrasting views on mother-child relationships – this variance in perspective originates from the context and nature of the birth and relationship, either romanticised Western or the harsh reality of countries with an anti-female bias. While both poems reflect on death and the elevation of maternal figures, Doshi focuses on maintaining a brutal narrative to symbolise the harsh truth of impoverished Indian states like Kerala, whereas Copus reflects on demonstrating the constant love and significance of the mother-child relationship
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